‘Victory has a thousand fathers. Defeat is an orphan’

Attributed to Count Ciano

How very true. Thunderous self-congratulations echo over the temporary ceasefire in Gaza that many hope will end two years of massacre, kidnappings and war crimes in this open-air prison camp.

President Donald Trump, hot in pursuit of the Nobel Peace prize, claims authorship of the just concluded ceasefire and prisoner release. His American supporters and legions of sycophants are heaping praise and accolades on him. Trump says he may shortly fly to the Mideast to ink an agreement.

I call this political kabuki. Like the so-called Abraham accords in Trump’s first term, the Gaza agreement is a sweetheart deal between US allies and satraps. Its primary object is to deflect the worldwide outcry against the genocide in Gaza fueled by US money, arms and diplomatic cover.

We, of course, commend President Trump for finally forcing an end to this horrible mass murder and hostage-taking. But why didn’t he do this nine months ago when he returned to office? Since October 7, 2023, over 67,000 Palestinians, of whom 20,000 were children, have been killed by Israeli bombing, shelling and tank fire. None of the Israeli hostages have yet been released. We should also recall the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, notably the real Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouti.

Trump has claimed that, until now, he could not influence Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt his genocidal ferocity in Gaza. Yet the US has given Israel over $300 billion since its foundation, an arsenal of ever-replenished arms, diplomatic cover, seas of intelligence data and the full-throated support of the mighty US media.

Trump should have been able to curb, if not end, Israel’s Gaza rampage with a phone call from the White House. He did not, of course, because Netanyahu is his closest ally. Trump also bears responsibility for the Gaza slaughter. The coterie of pro-Israel billionaires who finance him – particularly the Adelsons of Israel and Wall Street titans – play a key role in financing the Republican party. The US media keeps soft-soaping Netanyahu and downplaying his atrocities.

If the ceasefire holds, we return to square one. What is to be done with 2.3 million Palestinian inmates of the Gaza prison? Netanyahu’s hard right coalition partners want to ship them to the new, wretched US-created African state of South Sudan. They seem blissfully unconscious that the German Nazis wanted to do the same thing in the 1940’s with German and East European Jews.

Who will administer Gaza? Israel says no to the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas. The pro-Israel advisors surrounding Trump have amazingly proposed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a snake in the grass who acted as mouthpiece for the inarticulate President George W. Bush in justifying the US -British war against Iraq. Blair is detested across the Muslim World and a confidant of the Rothschilds.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has been an empty shell filled with western intelligence stooges since the murder of former leader Yasser Arafat.

Let me guess. The White House may propose a bunch of polite Arab technocrats from Qatar and Egypt, both US client states. Amusingly, Trump has proposed himself as ‘chairman of the board’ of the new Palestine Inc. Then son-in-law Jared Kushner will begin building resorts along the Palestine beachfront for the new Sultan of Palestine.

What about the Palestinians? They will remain twice-over refugees, first from what is now Northern Israel, now in the Trumpian Emirate of Palestine. Trump always wanted to be monarch. Here’s his chance. Much more fun being a Mideastern potentate than US president.

Netanyahu’s far right allies will keep pushing for their dream of ever-greater Israel that may well include parts of the new Gaza Riviera. His court problems may just slip way amid the jubilation over the end – or at least suspension– of the Gaza conflict.

Trump says he has launched peace in the Mideast after 2,000 years. Jews and Arabs rejoice that the Great Golfer has come to save them.

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2025